Plato

Concerned with what human beings can know and wanted to find pathways to absolute truth
- Discourse should be used as a means to uncover absolute truth, not merely to induce belief in probable truth or received wisdom
- Two uses of rhetoric to reach truth
  - convey truth that is already in the rhetor’s possession to an ignorant audience – by all effective means – so long as the rhetor keeps the audience’s best intentions at heart
  - collaborative conveying of truth in a give-and-take manor requiring the informed participation of all parties – HIGHEST FORM OF RHETORIC
Education must be based in a relationship between essentially distinct individuals – not two who cleave together as one flesh – who come together with the aim of transcending history
Platonic ideal rhetoric: "A man must first know the truth about every single subject on which he speaks or writes. He must be able to define each in terms of a universal class that stands by itself. When he has successively defined his subjects according to their specific classes, he must know how to continue the division until he reaches the point of indivisibility. He must make the same sort of distinction with reference to the nature of the soul... Not until a man acquires this capacity will it be possible to produce speech in a scientific way... either for the purposes of instruction or of persuasion."

The Phaedrus

the discussion of a “true rhetoric” – TRUE RHETORIC
- Characters
  - Socrates
  - Phaedrus – Sophist student
the ability to adapt arguments to various types of people is central to a true art or techne of rhetoric (audience awareness)

a debate against the Sophists over rhetoric’s effects on politics and justice - “a criticism of all rhetoric and rhetoricians” – FALSE RHETORIC
Characters
- Socrates
- Gorgias
- Polus (younger Sophist) – unwise – name means “colt”
  - comparison of true and false arts
    - True arts – have some good result that they both aim at and regularly achieve
    - False arts – rhetoric = perversion – may lead audience into injustice
- Callicles (older Sophist) – ruthless & cynical defender of rhetoric as power
  - discussion of true love - worst possible existence – living an unjust life and hating wisdom, while all the time thinking oneself to be living justly
Biggest problem with Sophists – they profess to teach about justice without any real understanding of justice itself
- teaching Sophistic rhetoric is reprehensible because it perpetuates injustice
Justice – one who truly understands justice could never choose to do injustice – because to understand justice is to love it, and at the same time to recognize just how repulsive injustice is